Journal Process 3

Design Studio AIR University of Melbourne 2012

Linda Feng 380911

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Architectural Discourse

The MAXXI museum in Italy, by the Zaha Hadid Architects is a creation of this 20th century modern museum. The desgn and construction process took ten years, the creation incorporates the urban environment into an effective geometric form that speaks for itself and nourishes the spirit of Rome.

The museum “aims to intensify the internal differentiation and cohesionwithin an architectural design as well as the design’s external continuities within given urban contexts”.

- Patrik Schumacher

“MAXXI supercedes the notion of museum as ‘object’ or fixed entity, presenting instead ‘a field of buildings’ accessible to all, with no firm boundary between what is ‘within’ and what ‘without’. Central to this new reality – its primary force – is a confluence of lines – walls that constantly intersect and separate to create indoor and outdoor spaces.”

The museum creates a form of architectural discourse; no longer in the conventional cell structure. The fluidity suggests motion, and encourages movement within. Like a three dimensional maze, the museum connects not only between floors but also in a fluid flow between levels. The concept of this building focused on the play of walls, an important and essential part of art display. For example extending walls as a cantilever, along extending beams and along a sloping path that leads to an internal terracing gallery space overlooking a main center of the gallery.

By incoporating parametricism, Zaha Hadid Architects created complex geometry to ‘embed’ the design into the environment.

Maxxi Museum becomes the local ‘Roman piazza’ for social interations; no longer just a museum, but part of the ‘urbanism of Rome’ (Zaha Hadid 2011)

Ive heard about

‘Ive heard about’ by R&Sie, is a habitable organism, self-reproducing, autopoietic system, grows and adapts to its inhabitants. Francois Roche imagines a programmable construction engine – the Viab, improvises as it assembles the structure (walls, cables, pipes etc.)

The Viab produces according to the needs and desires of the dwellers.

“Its inhabitants are immunized because they are both vectors and protectors of this complexity.”

“Tangled, intertwined, it seems to be a city, or rather a fragment of a city.”

Roche seeks to form non-forms of interwoven geometries derived from impulses of human occupation.

New territories< rsie@new-territories.com>, 2005, I’ve heard about, Webblog post, Viewed 14th March 2012, <http://www.new-territories.com/I%27veheardabout.htm

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Roche exploits notions in computer generated fabrications and applies to architecture. His idea originated from a robot ‘contour crafter’ invented by Behrokh Khoshnevis, much like a 3D printing system which produces wet cement from a nozzle and the programmable trowel levels the cement in position. Similar concept has been seen in nature, termite mounts are created from the molding of mud. Its form is shaped by the activities within, interdependent of the termites.

Roche’s idea of incorporating bio-mimicry can be seem in many modern influential designs. But ‘Ive heard about’ contributes the new notion of a self-reproducing habitable organism; his envision of the future presents a unique living style, social interaction and most indefinitely architectural style of nonforms.

Herring Island

Photo montage, Herring Island Gallery proposal

The design of Museum Space for Herring Island, creating a sense of discovery and anticipation. Its maze like plan is designed to create a sense of secrecy to stimulate by passers’ sense of curiosity and expectation. The design intent was to create a new form of interation socially and with the building itself. The notion of being ‘lost’ in a building contribution to architectural discourse , as it goes against the conventional designs to direct visitors to vertain locations or views within the building.

Choice of material was rammed earth to integrating with the surround environment and sculptures to preserve and enrich cultural heritage.

Herring Island Gallery proposal. Photograph by author

Westeren Gateway Design EOI The Western Gateway Design is an opportunity to express and produce a work of art that represents the fast growing city of Wyndham City. To bring together the unique and wide range of features, symbolic of the Wyndham District; it is proposed that the design of the installation to be a symbolism of continuity and growth of the Wyndham City both physically but also in nature, history, social, and heritage.

The two influential designs MAXXI Museum and I’ve heard abou create a form of architectural discourse; no longer in the conventional cell structure but in ‘fragmented geometry’. The fluidity of the museum suggests motion, and encourages movement within.

With the fast growing technology, what was once unimaginable designs are now a reality. In which such technology will be a large and important part of the installation design, to create a distinctive design that will capture passers-by’s’ attention. In assistance to creation of a unique piece of art that will further develop architectural discourse and will be remember as the symbol of the Wyndham City.

Ive heard about uses contemporary computational technique allows a glimpse of possibility to the design proposal for Western Gateway Design. The Wyndham City as a growing organism expanding from Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Point Cook, Wyndham Vale, Truganina and Tarneit. Its development coordinates with the needs and desires of growing number of residents.

The design would incorporate the progression of the Wyndham City as a continuous evolving entity.

Computational Design

WaterCube The Beijing National Aquatics Centre, inspired by the geometry of bubbles in soap leather, a symbol for water. The entire structure is formed of more than 4000 bubbles using transparent dual ETFE cushion envelope, a lightweight construction, achieving both aesthetics and function (thermal efficiency). In response to Chinese architectural culture, the design team incorporated the latest technologies and materials.

“The Watercube aesthetic is a pure expression of the design idea - a design which refects a form of water, responsive to its physical and urban setting, demonstrating principles of traditional Chinese architecture and embodying latest technologies and materiality. It is a result of cross-fertilisation of ideas between cultures and between architectural and engineering disciplines. For this reason, this project is truly unique.” - Australian Institute of Architecture

Gehry’s Tower The nine story building clothed with stainless steel, with a twisted facade on the small property is eye catching at the corner of the block. The twist of the facade directs the view towards a nearby park. Gehry used digital modeling software to create the simple twisting in the facade to form a dialog with the surrounding environment.

“Simple, topologically invariant transformations, such as twisting and bending, are particularly effective means for creating alternative morphologies. For instance, Gehry’s Ustra Office Building in Hanover, Germany (1999), has a simple prismatic form, which twists in the direction of the nearby open park area.” - Architecture in the Digital Age (Kolarevic)

The Great Court

The Great Court - British Museum, designed by Foster and Partners, is a two acre court covered with glass roof – ‘the largest covered public space in Europe’ – the British Museum.

Foster reveals as what they call ‘a cultural plaza’ through large glass roof design using similar computational technique to polygonal tessellation, using the surface extraction of a sphere, then subdivided into segments. In this case, due to irregular geometry in the roof perimeter, every 3,312 panes of glass are all unique in size, with 4,878 hollow rods and 1,566 connector nodes. All elements cut with Computer Numeric Control; a modern machinery tool interprets command files from CAD and CAM programs in order to process digital design.

The uniquness, quite literally, in the geometry in the Great Court shows the diversity of modern architecture; the extent of technology and new concepts can create.

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion

The ICD and ITKE conducted a research pavilion in 2010, focuses on ‘material orientated computational design’. Using plywood strips the team researches the forces externally and internally and constructs the physical form of the pavilion accordingly. The research team conducted the researched based on the idea which ‘digital processes are rarely able to reflect these intricate relations’ meaning the digital designs and forces are rarely dealt as a single process. Although there are advantages of producing a design which treats form and force as a single entity, there are limitations to such processes. The most obvious is the limitation of design creativity. The greatest advantage of digital design is the possibilities of unique forms, by introducing the limitations of specific materials; room for creative design is enormously reduced. In most design processes, it can be assumed that dealing with the form of the design comes before material. The form can present the main design intent, and then the material emphasizes the notions behind the forms.

However, the research still presents itself with innovative ideas and production processes. The physical form relies upon the ‘behavior and material characteristics’. The lightweight building, constructed entirely of strips of plywood that are robotically produced.

“The force that is locally stored in each bent region of the strip, and maintained by the corresponding tensioned region of the neighboring strip, greatly increases the structural capacity of the system. In order to prevent local points of concentrated bending moments, the locations of the connection points between strips needs to change along the structure, resulting in 80 different strip patterns constructed from more than 500 geometrically unique parts.” - archimmenges